Nine people were killed in tornadoes that swept through central Oklahoma on Friday, part of a storm system that caused widespread flooding in Oklahoma City and its suburbs, the state’s chief medical examiner said on Saturday.
Among the dead were two children and seven adults, said Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office. Two of the victims remain unidentified and officials said the names of those killed would not be released until their next of kin were notified.
Severe storms also swept into neighbouring Missouri.
Scott Holste, a spokesman for Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, said three people had died in flooding, one of them a young man who was swept into a storm drain in Miller County.
The tornadoes struck just 11 days after a twister categorized as EF5, the most powerful ranking, tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore and killed 24 people.
The latest storms dumped up to 20cm of rain on the Oklahoma City area, causing flash flooding that submerged parts of the sprawling metropolitan area that is home to more than 1.3 million people.
Nearly two dozen people were rescued from areas cut off by rising water, the National Weather Service said. More than 70 people have been treated for storm-related injuries, Oklahoma hospital officials said.